The genomics of childhood eating behaviours

Moritz Herle; Mohamed Abdulkadir; Christopher Hübel; Diana Santos Ferreira; Rachel Bryant-Waugh; Ruth J F Loos; Cynthia M Bulik; Bianca De Stavola; Nadia Micali

doi:10.1038/s41562-020-01019-y

The genomics of childhood eating behaviours

Nat Hum Behav. 2021 May;5(5):625-630. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-01019-y. Epub 2021 Jan 11.

Authors

Moritz Herle^{1

2}, Mohamed Abdulkadir³, Christopher Hübel^{4

5

6}, Diana Santos Ferreira^{7

8}, Rachel Bryant-Waugh⁹, Ruth J F Loos¹⁰, Cynthia M Bulik^{6

11

12}, Bianca De Stavola¹, Nadia Micali^{13

14

15}

Affiliations

¹ Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
² Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁴ Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
⁵ NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley Hospital, London, UK.
⁶ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁸ Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁹ Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders, Michael Rutter Centre for Children and Young People, Maudsley Hospital, London, UK.
¹⁰ The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹² Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹³ Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK. n.micali@ucl.ac.uk.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. n.micali@ucl.ac.uk.
¹⁵ Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division, Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland. n.micali@ucl.ac.uk.

Abstract

Eating behaviours may be expressions of genetic risk for obesity and are potential antecedents of later eating disorders. However, childhood eating behaviours are heterogeneous and transient. Here we show associations between polygenic scores for body mass index (BMI-PGS) and anorexia nervosa (AN-PGS) with eating behaviour trajectories during the first 10 years of life using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), n = 7,825. Results indicated that 1 s.d. increase in the BMI-PGS was associated with a 30-37% increased risk for early- and mid-childhood overeating. In contrast, 1 s.d. increase in BMI-PGS was associated with a 20% decrease in risk of persistent high levels of undereating and a 15% decrease in risk of persistent fussy eating. There was no evidence for a significant association between AN-PGS and eating behaviour trajectories. Our results support the notion that child eating behaviours share common genetic variants associated with BMI.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anorexia Nervosa / genetics*
Body Mass Index*
Body Weight / genetics*
Child
Feeding Behavior / physiology*
Genetic Predisposition to Disease*
Genomics
Humans
Multifactorial Inheritance*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding